How To Become Open To Receiving

Photo by Alistair MacRobert on Unsplash

Receiving is not always easy to do. For many of us, giving is preferable. Giving is a position of power and when we receive we may feel indebted or vulnerable in some other way.

Is Receiving Different For Sensitive People?

Sensitive people may have more difficulty receiving than others for a variety of reasons. When you are sensitive to the energies around you, and naturally focus on the deep processing of what you are experiencing and noticing, receiving may not be the first thing on your mind. Since sensitive people are different and often marginalized, they can lack confidence in their giving and their ability to have their giving valued. In addition, we have the challenge of not only processing our perceptions but also then finding a way to make our contributions accessible and accepted by those who do not perceive the way we do. It’s a lot and can cause us to forget about receiving.

Since we live in a market-based, transaction-oriented society which is not a natural energy for sensitive people, we can be out of the market-oriented loop since our natural gifts lie elsewhere.

How Can We Have A Better Balance?

Since sensitive people connect easily with energy, how can we use our natural abilities to make the balance of give and take easier? Being immersed in highly detailed and fast-paced transactional environments can make the balance of give and take harder for sensitive people because the environment keeps them off balance with its high processing demands. One possible strategy is to step outside the transactional model since sensitive people are not always the best negotiators.

When highly stressful and competitive negotiations are not your jam, you have to find an alternative. Sensitive people are not naturally suited to aggressive, competitive, and combative energies: the energy it takes to be successful in those environments on top of the demands of being sensitive is often not worth the cost to our health.

One way to step out of these challenging and demanding energies is to tap into the energy of flow which is a more natural pace and process of give and take. When we do that we create space to listen to what is going on with us so that we can notice when the energy in us and around us seems unbalanced. We will then know energetically how the balance between us and others is working and can manage the process of give and take better. We need a way to pace ourselves that supports us and lets us engage well with others. Working at staying in flow and listening for healthy give and take is a great way to do that.